When
I was asked to create the chess position
for HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S
STONE, I was more than delighted. Throughout
my life, I’ve watched movies and TV
shows make a joke of real chess positions
and real chess lingo. Now, after years of
seething, I finally had a chance to do the
job right.
My
gripes were the following:
*When referring to an opening system, the
actors would never say, “Ah, that’s my favorite
line in the Sicilian Defense.” Instead they
would blurt out, “Hey Jeb! You are playing
the Farmer Smith line against the Oak Tree Defense.”
I’ve never understood why they couldn’t
use a real opening name in the script.
*When referring to a famous player, they
would never say, “Oh, there goes Alekhine!”
Instead, we would always get some bastardized
Russian name: “Oh, there’s goes
Ragmazagolsky!”
*The actors were never taught how to move
the pieces correctly. A real chessplayer
doesn’t
push the piece meekly forward, he grabs the
sucker and smashes it down on a square. If
he captures, one hand moves his piece and
simultaneously cranes the enemy unit off
the board, almost faster than the eye can
follow.
*In about 20% of the scenes I’ve watched,
the chessboard has actually been incorrectly placed,
with a dark square in White’s right hand
corner (it’s supposed to be a light
square in that corner).
*Invariably, no matter how strong the players
are supposed to be, one will think for quite
a long time, smile, confidently make his move,
and his opponent will move something and say, “Checkmate!” (Does
any strong player EVER say checkmate?).
Clearly, I was faced with stemming this tide of
insanity. Unfortunately, many of these ideas faded
when I read the first Potter book and was faced
with the problem at hand: What position would
I create that would justify Ron sacrificing himself?
After spending many hours--day after day for a
few weeks--on the phone to the screenwriter in
Los Angeles and the producer in England (who insisted
that the first move should be a capture), I finally
decided on the following dynamic situation:
Harry is the Bishop on a3, Ron is the Knight on
g5, and Hermione is the Rook on f8. Black has
lost his Queen, but he has a strong attack against
the White King. Black’s immediate threat
is 1…Nh3 mate, so White begins with…
1.Qxd3
This eats a pawn (thereby
making the producer happy!) and prevents the
Knight’s intrusion into h3. She also threatens
to capture Harry on a3! Note that I had the
Queen make the capture because I wanted to do
everything possible to turn this piece into
something the young fans hated. In other words,
I wanted to turn the White Queen into the scene’s
villain.
1…Rc3!
A nice little combination,
since the sacrifice of the Rook adds to the
Queen-hatred by the audience. The real point,
of course, is that it frees the c5-square for
the Harry-Bishop.
2.Qxc3
The Queen captures the Rook
and once again threatens to end Harry’s
life!It looks bad
for our heroes, but is this really true?
Note that I created a logic
problem here. Black can force a mate in two
moves, but that would NOT be the correct solution.
Can you figure out why?
2…Nh3+!
A faster mate is possible
by 2…Bc5+ 3.Qxc5 Nh3 mate. Unfortunately,
this calls for the sacrifice of HARRY, something
that would end the quest immediately and is
therefore completely unacceptable.
By sacrificing himself, Ron pulls the Queen
away from its control over the c5-square.
3.Qxh3
This is the only legal move.
3…Bc5+
Suddenly White’s King
has no move, and the Queen is forced to step
in the way in a vain effort to safe its Monarch.
4.Qe3 Bxe3 mate.
I designed this to be an
important moment. To me, the audience would
get an enormous amount of emotional satisfaction
with Harry’s conquest of the hateful Queen.
Unfortunately, movie dynamics once again turned
a well thought out chess situation into mumbo-jumbo
(though it looked very energetic on the big
screen). The length of the film demanded some
cuts, so the moves of this whole scene were
more or less slashed to …Nh3+ (Ron’s
sacrifice) and …Be3 mate (notice that
…Be3 doesn’t capture the Queen…very,
very sad. I still feel that this was a real
missed opportunity and would have enriched the
whole on-screen scene immeasurably.).
After the movie I found myself deluged with
questions like, “Why can’t anyone
tell what the position is?” (Evidently,
the people who designed the pieces didn’t
consider this to be important.); “Why
isn’t your name in the credits?”
(Sigh…I was hoping nobody would notice
that. If you watch the credits role, you will
see everyone from the hairdressers to the donut
delivery boy given thanks for their part in
the creation of the film. The omission of the
“chess guy” shows just how far down
the food chain we are!); “Didn’t
grandmaster Speelman design the chess scenes
for Potter?” (NO! He was the chess guy
for THE LUZHIN DEFENSE.); and “Was this
position taken from a master game?”
This final question has spawned some funny controversy
on the web. In fact, in issue 35 (Summer, 2002)
of KINGPIN magazine, International Master Gary
Lane says that the game Jovanovic-Manzardo,
Imperia 1967 was the inspiration for the Potter
position:
Sorry guys, but I had never heard of this ridiculous
game until Lane published it in KINGPIN. Another
myth goes down the drain!
Allow me one plug:
The September issue of MUSE magazine, an intellectual
magazine for “youngsters” 10 and
up, is a special all chess issue (Okay, manatees
were tossed in for good measure. Oddly enough,
those manatees kind of look like some players
I know!). Put out by the same people who do
CRICKET Magazine and SMITHSONIAN Magazine, MUSE
is gorgeous on the eye and filled with instructive
material on a myriad of subjects (from science
to sport to art to literature). If you are a
parent and you want your child to acquire the
habit of reading/learning, then this periodical
is a MUST own!
MUSE is available at your local bookstore. If
you have difficult finding it, call customer
service at: 1-800-827-0227 or you can contact
them at:www.musemag.com
